PHILIPSBURG — The government of St. Maarten has ignored the call from the Kingdom Council of Ministers to present an approved 2025 budget by April 30. Instead, the revised budget will only reach the floor of parliament at an as yet unspecified date in June. Parliament approved the 2025 budget on January 17 but it was never ratified due to “technical legislative issues.” Finance Minister Marinka Gumbs explained during a meeting with members of parliament that the budget would not have had any issues if there had not been seven amendments, submitted by the government and by the parliament. Basically,…
Author: The Publisher
PHILIPSBURG — The Public Prosecutor’s Office intends to prosecute former parliamentarian Rolando Brison. It has charged him in its Lissabon-investigation with accepting bribes to the tune of more than $92,000 in exchange for efforts to promote crypto currency as legal tender and to make crypto exempt from capital gains tax. So far, those efforts have brought no results. Prosecutors also want to drag the parties who paid the bribes to court. Among them are Robbie dos Santos, Johan Alex Dijkhoffz and a businessman only identified as S.L.G. (Sunil Gehani, ed.), who is seemingly linked to business interests in St. Maarten…
PHILIPSBURG — The presence of Italian mafia organizations like the Ndrangheta and the Camorra has been noted in St. Maarten, Insightcrime.org reports in its publication Criminal threats to the Caribbean in 2025. These criminal organizations are also active in Curacao, the Dominican Republic and Guyana. Insight Crime is a non-profit organization that publishes an annual report about the presence of criminal organizations in Latin America and the Caribbean. Though its latest report emphasizes the threats to the islands closest to South America – in particular Curacao and Aruba – its contents suggests that St. Maarten is not far from the…
By Hilbert Haar What is truth? If you take the definition from the Merriam Webster dictionary as gospel, it could mean: “a judgment, proposition or idea that is true or accepted as true.” In my mind, truth is simply this: a fact supported by undeniable evidence. But in this Trumpian world this is not how it works anymore. The President of the United States lies like there is no tomorrow and his supporters are eating it up. They still believe that Joe Biden stole the 2020 election. An overwhelming majority of Trump-supporters (89 percent) believes that gun ownership does more…
Dear Editor, The blatant disregard for Sint Maarten’s laws and governance processes by the current Council of Ministers has once again been exposed, this time with their handling of public funds related to Soul Beach, Carnival, unauthorized payments to consultants, and questionable financial transfers. Their actions not only violate our Constitution and financial regulations but also highlight their intentional and selective approach to governance, favoring certain entities while neglecting others. Despite boasting some of the youngest and brightest legal minds within their ranks, this coalition government continues to apply the law selectively. They were quick to analyze and argue procedural…
Philipsburg, Sint Maarten – Member of Parliament Ardwell Irion says that the government has finally come forth with a bit more information regarding the 2025 budget, though it is buried under excessive rhetoric. In reality, the truth is clear: the 2025 budget has not been published or ratified due to serious errors in the budget amendments, particularly Nota 3, which concerns the Justice Ministry. The key issue at hand is that the budget is not merely a collection of numbers, it is a law. The amendment from the Justice Ministry contains critical errors that must be rectified. Instead of being…
Philipsburg, Sint Maarten – In light of the upcoming Soul Beach Festival scheduled in St. Maarten and the growing interest of this event within our community, MP Omar Ottley sent some critical questions to the Minister of Tourism Grisha Heyliger Marten regarding the Aruba Soul Music Fest and its implications on our tourism strategy seeing that this festival is scheduled the same time as St. Maarten’s Soul Beach Festival. “With a significant investment and $700,000.00 and expectations tied to our cultural tourism, it is my responsibility as a member of parliament to ensure transparency and clarity. I am calling upon…
St. Maarten’s tourism officials are playing a dangerous numbers game. The island’s leadership has touted rosy visitor figures while failing to provide credible, transparent data. This mismanagement of tourism statistics isn’t just an embarrassment—it’s a threat to our economic future. When our neighbors openly share thorough reports and we respond with a clumsy spreadsheet and PR spin, investors and airlines take note. It’s high time we call out this farce, contrast it with how others do it right, and demand an urgent fix. A Tale of Two Islands: St. Barths vs. St. Maarten Data Transparency St. Barths is schooling St.…
PHILIPSBURG — Compared to 2023, cruise and stay-over arrivals increased in 2024 by 16.5 percent, according to data release by STAT, the department of statistics. Last year, 511,339 travelers arrived either by air or on a cruise ship, compared to 438,748 in 2023. This seems to be good news for the local tourism-related industries. The month of September marks the bottom of the low season, even more so in 2024 than in the previous year. In 2023 there were 22,264 arrivals and in 2024 just 19,606, a dip of 11.9 percent. On the other end of the scale December remains…
PHILIPSBURG — Curacao-based airline Z Air obtained a positive court ruling about its conflict with the government of St. Maarten this month. The court ruled that St Maarten’s Civil Aviation Authority’s (SMCAA) demand that Z Air submit a letter signed by the American Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) that outlines the responsibilities about the maintenance of its five-plane fleet does not make sense and that it cannot be made a condition for a permit to fly to St. Maarten. The government has “insufficiently made clear and insufficiently substantiated that this letter is necessary to guarantee safe flights,” the court ruled. On…
